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Amazing Amsterdam

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A tulip in The Netherlands. Photo by Eduard Bergman/Holland Information Store.

By Beverly Levitt

My recent trip to Amsterdam was filled with agonies and ecstasies. But when I got home, I realized there are a gazillion reasons to visit the fair city other than the tulips and the paintings of Rembrandt and Van Gogh.

My list is not in any particular order.

As a former hippie, I must note, there are, um, "coffee shops" on every block with nary a person getting rowdy or misbehaving — shocking but true!

As an art history student, I like the Rijksmuseum, filled with Rembrandt's masterpieces, including The Jewish Bride. Because he lived in Amsterdam's Jewish Quarter and had a great friendship with the scribe Rabbi Manasseh ben Israel, Rembrandt gained a deep insight into Jews and their faith, which is reflected in his rich paintings of synagogues, wedding ceremonies and scenes from the Old Testament. He also reflected pain and resilience in his deeply emotional portraits of rabbis, Jewish doctors and merchants — his friends and neighbors. He often used Jewish models in his work — he loved their physiognomy and their style — a fact I found fascinating. And, who knows, you might see your great-great-great
-great-grandfather in The Night Watch.

You can see where the 17th-century artist lived and painted at the Rembrandt House. It became a museum in 1911 and houses most of his etchings as well as paintings.

While you're in the former Jewish Quarter, walk over to the Anne Frank House (Frankhuis), which, once you've been inside, you'll never forget. Every young woman who traverses where the young girl hid will be overwhelmed by her optimism and devastated by her dreams, all the while shaking her head at the horror of it all.

Also in the area are L'Hermitage, featuring temporary exhibitions from the rich collection of the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, and the newly renovated Jewish Historical Museum, which contains a rich collection of Judaica and a charming cafe where we had an unexpectedly delicious lunch. Also of great interest is the Dutch Resistance Museum.

At the glorious Keukenhof you can lose yourself among the 80,000 vibrant tulips, and no matter how hard you try, you can't take a less-than-stellar photograph. If you visit the famous Dutch gardens from mid-March through mid-May, they will blast you with their vibrancy. Visit the gift shop and buy some of the bulbs — you can take part of the garden home with you. Mine have just begun blooming — what a high! But take care to read the labels about what you're allowed to transport to the United States or they won't be allowed on the plane with you. I still wonder what they do with all those confiscated bulbs.

Visit, stay or even get married at the historic five-star Grand Amsterdam Hotel, which was formerly the City Hall. You'll sigh at the French cuisine of chef Andrew Gaskell, but the real reason to hop Lufthansa is the first-class wedding room created by Dutch Jewish artist Chris Lebeau. With a reservation, it is available for weddings. The Marriage Chamber has leaded glass windows in the Jugend style (influenced by nature) and colored ceiling and wall murals depicting the aspects of love and marriage. It is so breathtaking you want to bask in its tenderness and heartbreak for several hours.

The Gassan Diamond Polishing Factory will make you understand why Mark Twain said, "It is better to have old secondhand diamonds than none at all." And then you hear the story that the diamond industry was started in Amsterdam by Sephardic Jews, and the reason they took to polishing and selling the gems in the first place was that it was one of the few professions open to them. Although I wouldn't have thought to take the guided tour, I got an insight into facets, clarity and color — elements that determine how astronomical the price tag. When we were told we could actually purchase loose diamonds or jewelry, I was terrified even though I desperately wanted one of the colorless stones to be my new best friend. But it wasn't until I reached Terminal 4 at the Schiphol Airport that I knew I wasn't leaving Amsterdam without one. To my amazement, I saw the same "diamond" watch that our guide had been wearing and I had been drooling over. For 150 euros? Well, they look like the real thing. And nobody in the United States but me knows the truth.

Aside from a new timepiece, Amsterdam is home to the Van Gogh Museum with its Sunflowers and Irises.

Suffice it to say, I loved every minute exploring the diverse elements of this city, whose residents are so helpful that they don't just explain how to get somewhere when you're lost; they will walk with you to make sure you arrive safely.

On one such occasion I not only reached my destination, but on the way there I was treated to the best herring I have ever had, piled into a paper cup by a modest vendor on the street. But, as my impromptu guide explained, you have to know which wooden stands to frequent and which to avoid.

Even after all these highs and lows, my most remarkable experience was at an ordinary Formica table with a modest vase of flowers at the oldest deli in Amsterdam, Sandwichshop Sal Meijer. Our guide at the Jewish museum insisted I would love it and put me into a taxi after he negotiated the price.

To my surprise, I spent the rest of the afternoon there and then returned the next day, and, between sips of strong tea and bites of fish cakes, sandwiches and cakes, owners Marjan Meijer-Blog and her husband, Maurits Blog, regaled me with stories of pre- and post-war Amsterdam.

As we sat outside under the half-century-old Coca-Cola sign with the word koosjer (kosher), I listened with amazement and tears — mostly tears — and in a country halfway around the world, I felt like I was . . . home.

Customers came and went — the Blogs knew most of them by their first names. Some were members of their synagogue; others weren't even Jewish but ate lunch there every day.

I delighted when they told me that crusty critic Johannes van Dam (who can single-handedly make or break a restaurant) has, for the last decade, awarded their unassuming deli a "9 plus." Now where else in the world would a Jewish delicatessen receive the highest rating from one of the most ornery critics in the world?

Not only do the melt-in-your-mouth fish cakes, pastrami, corned beef and half-and-half sandwiches (half corned beef, half sliced liver) make up the menu considered the best Jewish fare in the country, but this pared down version of a New York deli — decidedly more Flatbush than Seventh Avenue — is called the second shul, where, in 1945, Holocaust survivors came in hopes of meeting old friends and thrived on the comfort of conversation and the family feeling of pre-war Amsterdam.

Today it is filled with folks of all ages and colors — regulars whose intimate conversations include talk of babies, graduations and weddings. When you cross the threshold, Maurits Blog gives you a warm smile and a hearty handshake. "It's the only thing from the Jewish tradition before the war that's left," a customer confides to me. Which might explain why it seems as much a gathering of good friends as an assortment of random diners.

When I ask Blog what makes his corned beef and pastrami so special, he says he still uses the recipes of his father-in-law, which include packing the meat in salt for a week. Like Sal Meijer, Maurits Blog was a butcher before coming to work in the restaurant.

As for his famous fish cakes, van Dam has unsuccessfully been trying to wangle a recipe for the lightest, most flavorful fish cakes this side of anywhere. But Blog's not talking. All I was able to get was, "Well, it starts with fresh white fish and pureed potatoes."

Beverly Levitt is a freelance writer in Los Angeles.

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